Customer Reviews
White Light - Gene at his best! - By: , 28 Jul 2005 
Of all the members that belonged to the Byrds at various stages, Gene was without doubt the most talented when it came to songwriting. He was essentially the creative forcein the early Byrds, even though Roger McGuinn got the limelight for being the "Leader" of the group.
I cannot understand how this album did not make it big time when it was originaly released. It is equal to anything put out by Dylan, Neil Young, Lennon or Lou Reed. The truth is that many of us realised what a great artist Gene was, only after his untimely demise. Of course some of us were not even born when this came out!
It is a joy to listen to this masterpiece lying downin bed with the headphones on, so that the rest of world is put to one side for one moment. You listen to the voice, the acoustic guitars, harmonica, & you are taken on a musical journey that will blow your mind away. Apparently David Gilmour & Roger Waters took the opening sequence from With Tomorrow & adapted it for Wish you Were Here. Spanish Guitar would easily make it to my top ten of all tracks ever composed, alongside Lennon's Imagine, Lou Reed & John Cale's Sunday Morning, or Neil Young's Harvest.
For Byrds Fans who have never listened to Gene's solo offerings, this is the one to begin with. Buy it & let it broaden your horizons to prepare you for other masterpieces such as No Other.
A gem that sticks in the mind and heart - Lost Clark classic - By: Ms. Felicia Davis-burden, 15 Apr 2005 Gene Clark's voice never sounded as intimate & relaxed as on this album. This is one of those albums that creep up on you - gently easing into your mind further on each play, I guess you could call it a 'grower'. One of the bonus tracks is an almost 'campfire' rendition of Lieber & Stoller's 'Stand By Me', with Gene sounding like he's digesting fried chicken with a nice cold beer under a starry sky with absolutely no hang-upsin waiting. And his harmonica playing reveals enormous character. A lovely collection.
sublime - By: , 20 Nov 2004 To listen to Gene Clark is to escape completely from everyday drudgery & fly to a place of warmth & beauty perfectly encapsulatedin voice of terrifying tenderness. Listening to these original nine songs offers the chance to relive an era long since departed. His wavering, shuddering voice unsettles yet at the same time soothes the soulin a rare & sublime sense. His unique interpretation of country & folk drips with a feeling of agitation & sorrow that caresses the listener into a stupor. The music & sparse accompaniment is startling but it is his voice which staysin the memory
Another Gene Clark classic- this one from 1971... - By: Jason Parkes, 17 Jul 2004 1971's 'Gene Clark' (known more commonly as 'White Light', though an artwork mishap lost the title)is one of Clark's frequent post-Byrds masterpieces alongside ...with the Gosdin Brothers (1967), Echoes (1967/8, released 1991), The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark (1968), the underrated Roadmaster (1972), & career-high & contender for greatest LP ever, 1974's No Other. Of all his LPs, No Other appears to get the best reception- though I don't understandin these times when Gram Parsons' is lionised & Sweetheart of the Rodeo is seen as The Byrds' greatest work, why Clark's equally revolutionary musicin the folk/country-rock/cosmic american music realm is so passed over!
Clark had become a bit lost, with a series of commercial flops & the obligatory hedonism- the latter would sadly contribute to his too early deathin the early 1990s. The Byrds had come back into vogue with Untitled & the original Byrds attempted reunions- Onein a Hundred here is a re-recorded version of a 1970 single with Clarke,Crosby, Hillman & McGuinn- this is featured on the classic Clark-compilation Flying High. Clark holed upin Medocino, California &in his own time wrote much of this LP- perhaps his own Basement Tapes/Big Pink (the cover of Tears of Rage I think nods to that, as well as the debt The Byrds owed Dylan. The version of Tears...doesn't top the Big Pink version, but is nice & Dylan was rather enamoured with Clark himself, particularly Spanish Guitar- which I'd love to hear Dylan sing!).
Members/ex-members of The Burritos (Clark almost replaced Parsons, then thought what was the point!), the Steve Miller Band & Taj Mahal back Clark here & it flips from acoustic-country-folk to a more otherworldly realm, gorgeous spiritual tracks like Because of You, 1975 & the title track are moving towards the mindblowing domain of No Other. The Nine-track original LP offering up a wealth of joys- the sublime country-soul of The Virgin (pre-Blood on the Tracks, should appeal to those who love that LP), the hushed With Tomorrow (covered by This Mortal Coil & I think an influence on Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here)& one of Clark's greatest moments, For a Spanish Guitar. If you don't like this song, or at don't think it's the greatest song ever...check for a pulse/soul etc!!!!
This remastered/reissue (with nice sleevenotes from Long Ryder Sid Griffin) comes with five bonus tracks- a curio cover of Ben E.King's Stand By Me (a definite outtake), an alternate take of Because of You, & the previously unreleased Ship of the Lord (which makes me think of late period Velvets). The final two bonus cuts are the brilliant outtakes Opening Day & Winter In (how didn't these make the LP proper?)- though why this 2002 reissue lists them as 'previously unreleased/rare track' when both appeared on A&M's in-print 1998 Flying High compilation is beyond me!
White Light is a great LP & proof that Clark is an artist of greater richness than Gram Parsons, whose slim back-catalogue & mythology doesn't top Clark's truly revolutionary, neglected works post-Byrds...
Pure Gene-ius (sic) - By: Jim Barker, 21 Jul 2002 
If there's any justicein the world, Gene Clark would be held with as much delight &in as high an esteem as Bob Dylan. However, such is the cruel & unjust nature of the music world that, until this long-overdue re-release of his second solo album, very few will have had the chance to sample this man's immeasurable (and now sadly departed) talent.
Luck & Gene Clark never really went hand-in-hand. He left the Byrds just as their furtive creativity peaked (see Younger Than Yesterday & Notorious Byrd Brothers for evidence), & apart from poor album sales, his solo material has rarely been given the praise it deserves.
Well, let's redress the balance. For "White Light" showcases a man who, as well as having a voice that would melt the hardest of hearts, could write songs of great emotion & beauty. In the style of all great songwriters past & present (specifically Dylan, Reed, Drake & Wilson), here is a man who has no fear of weaving his own song tapestry from self-extracted fibres of the psyche. The sparse instrumentation & dream-like vocal style only help to emphasise the fact - here is the sound of a man alone, isolated, & yet free.
Musically, Clark's solo work draws its main inspiration from the twin pillars of country & folk. Whilst this is hardly surprising considering his Byrds lineage (indeed, one can hear the influence of Dylan throughout, a fact blatantly conveyed by his cover of "Tears Of Rage"), his sound clearly tries to break away from the folk-rock of his mid-60s incarnation. Here, Clark is the touch-bearing troubadour, the soothsayer & the lovesick teenager that bedsit ennui spend most of their lives aspiring to.
The music that lies within "White Light" is, naturally, haunting, emotive & beautiful. Whilst the album does have its more up-tempo moments ("White Light" itself), for the most part Clark is content to sing with merely a guitar to back him. It's here his style is most effective - witness "With Tomorrow" & "For A Spanish Guitar" for evidence that the human voice can reduce a grown man to tears. And, even for someone who loathes C&W, you can't help but love the likes of "The Virgin" - storytelling that even Dylan would be envious of.
To listen to this albumin its entirity is, to be frank, a somewhat unsettling experience. Clark takes you through a real emotional rollercoaster - lost love, anger, isolation are all addressed and, with the album's instrumentation, you're almost compelled to join him on his journey. People who do shouldn't worry about shedding a tear or two - it's almost as if your meant to.
Allin all, "White Light" is a very welcome re-release. Bonus tracks aside, the album has aged somewhat, but represents perhaps the best example of what might be considered as a lost period of musical history - the post-hippy American singer-songwriter movement. Byrds fans (especially those of Clark-era albums such as Mr Tambourine Man & Turn, Turn, Turn) may bein for a surprise, but for the rest of us "White Light" is the best window into the stark yet enchanting world of Gene Clark. That is, until they re-release his magnum opus, "No Other"...
